Quantitative Research Methods in Design

About the Course

This course equips researchers and design professionals with quantitative research skills. The course helps you plan and conduct quantitative research studies, collect and analyse data and interpret results. It also helps you understand the quantitative research of others and draw valid conclusions from it. It is particularly suitable for those involved in data-driven projects, usability studies, and design evaluation. Doctoral students and faculty members conducting quantitative research in design will also find this course useful.

The course counts towards 6 credits in the ePGD programme in Interaction Design offered by IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. The course will be offered on weekends in an online mode, though the final exam and the final course project presentation will be in-person in the IIT Bombay campus.

Who should attend?

This programme is for you if you are:

A postgraduate student in design interested in quantitative design research.
A researcher or professional in a design-related field wanting to learn basic quantitative methods.
Design Researcher conducting qualitative design projects or usability studies/design evaluations.
A doctoral student or faculty member involved in quantitative design research.

Goals and Outcomes

This course has two goals:

Teach the fundamental concepts related to quantitative research such as theory, research questions, hypothesis, experimental designs, independent and dependent variables, research ethics etc.
Expose the learner to quantitative research skills required to design, plan and conduct systematic quantitative studies / experiments.

Intended outcomes of the course:

Frame and evaluate hypotheses and theories around design research and evaluation projects.
Design and plan systematic, ethical experiments / studies.
Recruit users and carry out studies.
Analyse data systematically using frequently used statistical methods.
Understand conditions in which a statistical test can be used and its limitations.
Make appropriate claims and draw valid conclusions.
Estimate appropriate sample sizes and statistical power of a study.
Understand how research papers are written, reviewed, and published.

Contents and Schedule

The table below shows the planned contents for the 6 day online course. The course can be conducted either as one full day (either Sat or Sun) or as two half days (both Sat & Sun) depending on the preference of the course participants. Participants must be familiar with basic mathematical concepts and fluency with spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheet) is desirable.

Week

Topics (Lectures)

Learning activities, assignments

Week 1

Introduction: Locating Research, Understanding research / theory

Planning a quantitative design study.

Week 2

Developing research questions, Sampling, distributions, confidence intervals, variables etc.

Refining research design for the research project.

Week 3

Research design, Design of experiments, independent / dependent variables

Formalizing the study, initial trial runs.

Week 4

Research Ethics, Null hypothesis significance testing, (t-test, ANOVA, regression)

Present project plan. Pilot study execution.

Week 5

Argumentation, Writing a paper, reading / reviewing a paper

Pilot study presentations. Conducting main study.

Week 6

Usability metrics (SUS), power, sample size calculation, errors (Type I & II)

Completing the study, preparing for the final presentation

Week 7

Final project presentations (in-person in the IITB campus)

End-course exam (in-person in the IITB campus)

Course instructor(s)

Anirudha Joshi

Girish Dalvi

Eligibility Criteria

You have an undergraduate degree (or equivalent) from a recognised university in any of these disciplines: design, engineering, architecture, fine arts, applied arts, information architecture, ergonomics / human factors, writing and communication.
OR
You have any other undergraduate degree from a university recognised by IIT Bombay and if you have work experience in the industry of 3 years or more in any of these roles: user interface designer, user experience designer, web developer, information architect, graphic designer, visual designer, copywriter, product manager, brand manager.

Credits and Certification

Participants get 6 credits after passing this course which count towards the ePGD in Interaction Design from IIT Bombay. Please refer to the Credits / Certification section of the FAQs for more details.